Tirupati Diary

I am no atheist. However, I have come to believe that God brings out the devil in us. In most large temples, the closer people get to the sanctum sanctorum, the more devilish they become in behaviour. It’s a mob with a task at hand. We are as close to a stampede as we can be. It is indeed a miracle that we have so few tragedies in religious places despite all this. I requested a muscleman shouldering his way through (he had just felled an old lady) to ease off, but the man was in no mood to relent. Indeed, he told me, “Tirupati mein dhakka diye bina darshan nahi hota (You can’t get darshan in Tirupati without pushing and shoving).” However, watching some of the faithful is a humbling experience. People with babies in arms, old people who can barely walk, the infirm, all come with hope and prayers. They tonsure their head, walk barefoot for miles, do the shayanapradikshanam (rolling bare-bodied around the temple in penance). If fear and faith in God can make us behave, make us do the right thing, then temples are the best influencers for better societies.

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Quick darshan

The Lord, it seems, is no longer that soft on the rich and famous. The ear­lier VIP culture, where every devotee worth his salt came with a recommendation letter, has taken a bit of a knock. There is a change in the system, technology is in favour, but it’s all focused on increasing profits for the temple trust. The new racket is called ‘quick darshan’ and the charge is Rs 300. But my ticket still took me nine hours in the queue! I was informed that the normal queue sometimes take you there faster. However, those in power have left enough scope to empower themselves. When I went for the ‘suprabhat’ darshan with a special ticket, I didn’t find a single ‘normal’ person. Everyone present had influenced the system, a sense of entitlement writ large on their faces. There is also something called a ‘break darshan’ where, for a certain period, only the very special ones find their way to the Lord as the normal queue is stopped. Bigger the temple, bigger the VIP culture. There have been instances in the past where temple doors were opened in the middle of the night to wake up a sleeping lord so that a VVIP can take his blessings. And yes, today there were eight Gujaratis amongst the VIPs.

The loot is on

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I am more certain now than ever that the Hindu religion is more abused by its own. The commercialisation and loot happening across major temples is a blot on Hindus. From Jammu to Mathura, Dwarka to Mumbai, Tirupati to Srisailam to Jagannath temple, commercialisation has taken over. Devotees are harassed and fleeced by touts from our own religion. Some amount of money gets you faster access to the Lord—temple trusts have seized this route and made it official. In many temples, the priests are the prime initiators and active participants in the loot. They openly demand a pooja be performed, with emotional blackmail if you don’t fall for their spin. And in many big temples, the Lord is rarely allowed to sleep in pursuit of demands from the faithful and the VIPs. The BJP has to save Hinduism, not from Pakistan but from Hindustan.

Grand destination

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Over a decade back, I had tra­velled with then Andhra Pradesh CM Chand­rababu Naidu in his car to the Hyderabad airport. He had explained his plan for converting Tirupati into a grand destination like the Vatican with all-round benefits to the region. He wanted to make the journey easier and also provide attractions that would make devotees stay back a few days to absorb the atmosphere. Now that he is back in power, I hope he will work on the grand project. But then, would any politician disempower him­self to create a transparent administration?

Loo and behold

For me, the argument about building more toilets than temples was settled here. Many years back, I had driven down with friends from the erstwhile Madras to Tirupati. We reached the temple town very early in the morning and had to wait for our accommodation for a few hours till the offices opened. As we wandered aro­­und, some of us decided to have hot south Indian filter coffee. This led to a cyclical reaction, triggering the inevitable bowel movement. And as the stomach started talking, we queued up at a public facility. I saw a guy right at the head of the queue restlessly walking back and forth wai­ting for his turn. I have never seen a guy as restless as him. As the door opened and the person ins­ide came out, this guy barged in, shut the door and I heard varied sounds—from sirens to cra­ckers and blasts, followed by cusswords, all in the same breadth. Jairam Ramesh has never been proved more correct and the debate was settled here.

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Last week, I learnt...

Tirupati temple collections will go up by Rs 138 crore this poll year as against just Rs 15 crore last year. “The collections increase when there is a crisis,” explained the chief priest.

2. Waqf boards are wealthy too with real estate holdings running into thousands of crores. However, taking control of them will be interpreted as an assault of freedom of worship. Likewise with other minority bodies.

Ideally, it will be great if temple management is handed over to autonomous bodies. However, that raises more issues. Hence, the status quo will be maintained indefinitely.

D.L.Narayan: "Can you name at least one religious body, other than Hindu, which is under government control?"

In my view, government control of Hindu temples (and no other religion) is a tool to oppress and contain the majority religion. I am not sure what the motivation is, but it is a grave perversion of the fundamental principle of equality before the law. But then, India is riddled with so many perversions, who is counting?

In my experience of visiting Tirupati temple (more than once), I conclude that the place is just an extension of the corrupt state government. The people who work in Tirumala are just like typical state government employees and treat everyone without a recommendation letter like trash. The solution for this sorry state is not anything new or novel, just get the frikking government out of running temples. Let the temple trusts and boards register themselves as non-profit organizations and run the temples any way they see fit (within the laws that govern non-profit organizations). Who is the CM to turn Tirupati into another Vatican or gatican - a secular government has no business to get involved in such matters. Revert the temples back to being private entities and let them do what they want to do. The Constitution proclaims India to be secular on page one and allows the government to flout secular principles on the next page - I have not seen the original Indian Constitution, but I am sure it looks a lot like swiss cheese - full of holes.

In the seventeenth century, a person living in England and not attending churches would ahve been fined heavily. Today, most of these churches have been sold, and converted to mosques, temples and gurudwaras. People here is not religious at all. But these white people are far more honest and tolearant than peoiple back home. Is it any wonder that Indians are the second richest community after the Jews in UK.

A Hindu can be an atheist, and he will still be a Hindu. A Hindu has the liberty to criticise his religion because he has no fear from the Hindu Taliban, if it exists. In my college days, I have heard people singing chorus with expletive filth about Radha and Krishna, and still nobody stopped them doing their pooja in the next day. Hinduism is a two way street, one can come and go at any time.

Interesting to note here that the VVIP for whom the Lord was awakwened fron His sleep is now in very hot waters indeed. So what would be the moral of the story? That the Lord punished the VVIP for his arrogance and conduct? Or, that merely having and flaunting your wealth and riches cannot get you anywhere with God?

Will a non-atheist Muslim write on the rivers of blood flowing from the sacrifised animals at Mecca?Or,will any Catholic write on the huge number of FLs used by the men devotees, found in the Vatican courtyard after the new Pope was concecrated?Though the writer is right about his comment on Tirupati,but in India no Muslim or Christian ever criticises the malpractices in their places of worship.